Shinzo Abe has cause for optimism as he joins Donald Trump for a round of golf at Mar-a-Lago.

“Let us call the U.S.-Japan alliance, an alliance of hope,” Shinzo Abe declared in 2015 to a rare joint meeting of Congress. With this poetic touch, the Japanese prime minister sought to define one of the world’s key relationships with themes suited to Obama-era sensibilities: optimistic, liberal, even gauzy. Six weeks later Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president.